Beachwood Schools, University Hospitals partner for medical academy

Beachwood High School students interested in entering the medical field will soon have a leg up over their peers.

The Beachwood City School District and University Hospitals are working together to create a “rigorous four-year, science-based curriculum” that will help high school students prepare for professional careers in medicine, according a news release from the school district.

Superintendent Richard A. Markwardt said the school district and University Hospitals partnered on smaller projects in the past, such as health screenings for staff and tours of UH’s facilities for students.

“We just decided that we would ask them to partner with us on a program that was larger, grander and more complex, and they agreed,” Markwardt said.

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The UH-Beachwood High School Medical Academy program will combine traditional honors and Advanced Placement classes at the high school with internships, credit-flex studies, augmented summer course work and “structured experiences at multiple sites within the UH system.”

“Access to UH resources will greatly strengthen and enhance our students’ ability to apply academic content to the practice of medicine,” Markwardt said.

The program is scheduled to start in the fall of 2014. Markwardt said he expects about 25 students to enroll per grade.

He said the program will first be available to incoming freshmen and possibly sophomore students with new grades being added each year.

Markwardt said it is ideally a four-year program, but students will have the option to enroll later into their high school careers.

“Not everyone knows what they want to be when they’re in eighth and ninth grade,” he said.

Students joining later in their academic careers will miss certain elements of the program, but will have access to activities such as internships.

Markwardt said the district is considering launching the program this summer with a “summer med camp” for incoming freshmen that will offer a broad orientation of the program.

The school district and hospital applied for a grant from Ohio Department of Education Straight A Fund to help pay for a part-time coordinator who would assist in the initial curriculum and program development.

“Teaching is a part of our mission,” said PJ Hrehocik, UH vice president of corporate health, in a statement. “We are excited to partner with a leading school district to further enrich the education of students interested in pursuing a career in health care.”